New Tactics Tried In Route 66 Fight

Agency, Congressional Channels Plied

May 27, 1998|By CHARLES STANNARD; Courant Correspondent

MIDDLEFIELD — Members of the citizens' group opposed to the Route 66 expansion project are using several tracks in resisting the state Department of Transportation's plan to expand a section of the road to four lanes.

After announcing Tuesday night that the group has obtained its own intervenor status on state Department of Environmental Protection hearings on the project, group President Kathy Kokoszka and other members also pressed visiting U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, to become involved in an effort to bring the DOT to compromise on the scope of the project.

DeLauro had come to the community center for an issues forum, looking to talk to an audience of about 40 people about managed care regulation, tobacco, education and other national issues.

Kokoszka and group member Marianne Corona urged DeLauro to use her influence as a congresswoman to encourage the DOT to compromise with critics on the scope of the project. Kokoszka noted that a significant portion of the estimated $30 million cost of the expansion project will come from federal transportation funds.

``It is a state issue, but there are federal funds involved,'' DeLauro said. ``I hope there is an opportunity to find a compromise.''

Kokoszka said she had little new information on the next step for the project that has been planned since 1993. She said the date for a DEP hearing on final permits for the project has not been set.

``It is long overdue, but no one has set a date,'' Kokoszka said.

Obtaining a separate intervenor status will give the group all information on the project and the opportunity to push for a full public hearing in Middlefield on the permit applications, Kokoszka said.

The group has no immediate plans to make a new request for a town funding contribution for a possible legal battle with the DOT, she said.

While a March 19 town meeting vote affirmed the town's ``official opposition'' to the current DOT plans, efforts to appropriate money for a possible legal fight have been blocked by the board of finance. Funding for an environmental attorney to contest the project was not included in the 1998-99 town budget approved by voters on May 11.

``We have no strategy at the moment for going back to the town for money,'' Kokoszka said.